Field Day

Going back several years, Seattle ACS and Puget Sound Repeater Group (PSRG) have co-hosted an station for ARRL Field Day. ARRL Field Day is the most popular amateur radio event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations. Operations include HF SSB phone and CW; VHF-UHF; digital; a GOTA station (Get On The Air) to allow non-licensed visitors to transmit.

ACS and Puget Sound Repeater Group will again be hosting a joint Field Day Event at South Seattle College (location). We will on the field at the south end of the campus, adjacent to Olympic Hall. We are also inviting members of Western Washington DX Club, Western Washington Medical Services Team, and West Seattle Amateur Radio Cloud to join us this year.

The rough schedule of activity:Friday June 23rd:
– 9am: Site preparation commences
– 5pm: Site preparation completed – testing and informal radio operationSaturday June 24th:
– 8am: Final site and equipment preparation
– 11am: Field day contest operations commence (for 24 hours)
– 7pm-ish: some sort of dinner break to be determined. Will probably include some potluck, some pizza, maybe a BBQ depending on volunteersSunday June 25th:
– 7am: Coffee, croissants, and danish run. Possibly other breakfast if organized.
– 11am: Contest operations cease. A brief rest while organize teardown operations
– 11:30: Tear down operations commence
– 3pm-ish (possibly later) we finish teardown and retire to a local eatery for refreshing beverages and food.

If you would like to participate in Field Day, there are many roles over the 3 day period and we would love to see many of you join us, even if its only for a couple of hours.

Youth and non-Amateur Involvement

A major goal of Field Day is to expose the public to amateur radio and some of the many roles it can play. We are especially interested in getting youth and other interested people on the air at Field Day and will be operating a GOTA (Get On The Air) station with a mentor to let unlicensed (or recently licensed hams) get on HF (or VHF) and get a great exposure to ham radio. Please take this as an opportunity to expose your friends and family to our hobby in a welcoming and supportive environment.

We are very aware that the Pride Parade this same weekend. Luckily for us and you, this is a daytime event that occurs after the vast majority of setup has been completed. You can participate in both of these activities if you want to. We will need a core of support on site for Field Day on Saturday, but once the parade is complete, you will be free to come join the Field Day activities at SSC. Remember we will be fully active on the air until 11 am on Sunday, and we’ll need fresh operators in the night and early morning. So if you are supporting the parade, consider going home, eating, resting and joining use sometime later in the operating cycle. You’ll be able to indicate this in the survey form. Just remember, you can do both activities.